Science news

• Ancient attack marks show ocean predators got scarier

  15-06-2017 22:12
  
  Killer snails and other ocean predators that drill through shells have grown bigger over evolutionary time.
  
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• Trump's proposed cuts to EPA meet opposition on Capitol Hill

  15-06-2017 21:50 via cbc.ca
  
  Lawmakers concerned about curbing pollution and a warming planet gave a cool reception to President Donald Trump's environmental chief on Thursday as he defended the administration's proposal to sharply reduce the budget of his own agency.
  
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• Like a moth to a flame: The spread of the spruce budworm

  15-06-2017 21:50
  In the last decade, 7 million hectares of boreal forest in Eastern Canada have been destroyed by the voracious insect known as the spruce budworm. And the outbreak is heading south again this spring. And the outbreak is heading south again this spring, leaving devastation and fires in its wake, warn researchers.
  
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• Interplay of light and matter: A 'perfect' attosecond experiment

  15-06-2017 21:50
  Novel experiments using ultrafast pulses are currently revolutionizing laser physics research. They deliver unprecedented insights into matter – into the structure and dynamics of electrons in atoms, molecules and in condensed phases. Using what is known as an attosecond experiment, physicists have managed to completely measure and describe the quantum-mechanical wave function of an ionized electron.
  
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• Lake Ontario levels unleash a flood of cross-border bickering

  15-06-2017 21:40 via cbc.ca
  
  An international experiment spurred by a soaked spring has quickly become a blame game as Canada and the United States figure out what to do about Lake Ontario and its precariously high water levels.
  
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• Bioengineers develop new technologies to drive next-generation therapies for MS

  15-06-2017 21:34
  Researchers are using quantum dots -- tiny semiconductor particles commonly used in nanotechnology -- to decipher the features needed to design specific and effective therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune diseases.
  
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• Scientists make plastic from carbon dioxide and sugar

  15-06-2017 20:45 via cbc.ca
  
  Researchers from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom have created biodegradable plastic that could one day replace oil-based plastics, which take centuries to break down.
  
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• Scientists reveal mechanism behind mosquito-borne-disease 'blocker' used to fight viruses

  15-06-2017 20:28
  A new study may explain how a bacterium called Wolbachia prevents mosquitoes from transmitting deadly diseases such as dengue fever, West Nile virus and Zika.
  
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• New genetic technique could help identify potential drug targets for malaria

  15-06-2017 20:28
  
  Scientists have developed a new technique for investigating the effects of gene deletion at later stages in the life cycle of a parasite that causes malaria in rodents, according to a new study. The novel approach could enhance research into potential drug targets for malaria treatment.
  
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• New antibiotic effective against drug-resistant bacteria

  15-06-2017 20:28
  
  Scientists have discovered a new antibiotic effective against drug-resistant bacteria: pseudouridimycin. The new antibiotic is produced by a microbe found in a soil sample collected in Italy and was discovered by screening microbes from soil samples. The new antibiotic kills a broad spectrum of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant bacteria in a test tube and cures bacterial infections in mice.
  
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• Mutations that allow bird flu strain to spread among humans identified

  15-06-2017 20:28
  
  Scientists have identified several genetic mutations that, should they arise, could potentially allow the avian influenza strain H7N9 to spread between humans.
  
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• 8 in 10 Indonesian children has been infected with dengue

  15-06-2017 20:28
  Indonesia has one of the highest burdens of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne virus, in the world, and children account for many cases. Well over half of all children in urban areas are infected with dengue by the age of 5, and more than 80 percent have been infected with the virus at least once by age 10, researchers now report.
  
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• Ring, Ring: 'Earth? It's space calling, on the quantum line'

  15-06-2017 20:27
  
  Scientists report the successful transmission of entangled photons between suborbital space and Earth.
  
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• Newly discovered cellular pathway may lead to cancer therapies

  15-06-2017 20:27
  Scientists have discovered a new cellular pathway that can promote and support the growth of cancer cells. In a mouse model of melanoma, blocking this pathway resulted in reduction of tumor growth.
  
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• Egocentric hearing: How we can tell where a sound is coming from

  15-06-2017 20:27
  A new study has found that most neurons in the brain's auditory cortex detect where a sound is coming from relative to the head, but some are tuned to a sound source's actual position in the world.
  
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• Bee antennae offer links between the evolution of social behavior and communication

  15-06-2017 20:26
  
  As bees' social behavior evolved, their complex chemical communication systems evolved in concert, according to a new study.
  
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• Quantum leap

  15-06-2017 20:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Chinese scientists say their experimental Micius spacecraft paves the way for a new kind of internet.
  
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• China's quantum satellite in big leap

  15-06-2017 20:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Chinese scientists say their experimental Micius spacecraft paves the way for a new kind of internet.
  
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• Magma stored under volcanoes is mostly solid

  15-06-2017 20:03
  
  Ancient zircon crystals provide clues about the magma that fuels volcanic eruptions.
  
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• Quantum satellite shatters entanglement record

  15-06-2017 20:00
  
  A satellite sent entangled particles to two Chinese cities 1,200 kilometers apart.
  
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• China Shatters "Spooky Action at a Distance" Record, Preps for Quantum Internet

  15-06-2017 20:00 via rss.sciam.com
  Results from the Micius satellite test quantum entanglement, pointing the way toward hack-proof global communications—and a new space race
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• How to build software for a computer 50 times faster than anything in the world

  15-06-2017 19:32
  
  Researchers are working to create new and adapt existing software technologies to operate at exascale by overcoming challenges found in several key areas, such as resiliency, data reduction, software libraries and the management of memory, power and computational resources.
  
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• Technology which makes electricity from urine also kills pathogens, researchers find

  15-06-2017 19:31
  
  A scientific breakthrough has taken an emerging biotechnology a step closer to being used to treat wastewater in the Developing World.
  
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• A rusty and sweet side of sepsis

  15-06-2017 19:31
  Sepsis is a major global healthcare problem that affects over 18 million individuals per year, every single year, corresponding to 1,400 deaths per day. In Europe and the US alone, there are an estimated 135,000 and 215,000 causalities, respectively. Using experimental models of sepsis in mice, a research team discovered an unsuspected mechanism that is protective against sepsis.
  
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• Tubular clathrin/AP-2 lattices pinch collagen fibers to support 3D cell migration

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Migrating cells often use focal adhesions in order to move. Focal adhesions are less prominent in cells migrating in three-dimensional (3D) as compared with 2D environments. We looked for alternative adhesion structures supporting cell migration. We analyzed the dynamics of clathrin-coated pits in cells migrating in a 3D environment of collagen fibers. Both topological cues and local engagement of integrins triggered the accumulation of clathrin-coated structures on fibers. Clathrin/adaptor prot
  
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• Transcriptional activation of RagD GTPase controls mTORC1 and promotes cancer growth

  15-06-2017 19:29
  The mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) is recruited to the lysosome by Rag guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) and regulates anabolic pathways in response to nutrients. We found that MiT/TFE transcription factors—master regulators of lysosomal and melanosomal biogenesis and autophagy—control mTORC1 lysosomal recruitment and activity by directly regulating the expression of RagD. In mice, this mechanism mediated adaptation to food availability after starvation and phys
  
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• Seasonal water storage, stress modulation, and California seismicity

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Establishing what controls the timing of earthquakes is fundamental to understanding the nature of the earthquake cycle and critical to determining time-dependent earthquake hazard. Seasonal loading provides a natural laboratory to explore the crustal response to a quantifiable transient force. In California, water storage deforms the crust as snow and water accumulates during the wet winter months. We used 9 years of global positioning system (GPS) vertical deformation time series to constrain
  
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• Satellites reveal contrasting responses of regional climate to the widespread greening of Earth

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Changes in vegetation cover associated with the observed greening may affect several biophysical processes, whose net effects on climate are unclear. We analyzed remotely sensed dynamics in leaf area index (LAI) and energy fluxes in order to explore the associated variation in local climate. We show that the increasing trend in LAI contributed to the warming of boreal zones through a reduction of surface albedo and to an evaporation-driven cooling in arid regions. The interplay between LAI and s
  
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• Satellite-based entanglement distribution over 1200 kilometers

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Long-distance entanglement distribution is essential for both foundational tests of quantum physics and scalable quantum networks. Owing to channel loss, however, the previously achieved distance was limited to ~100 kilometers. Here we demonstrate satellite-based distribution of entangled photon pairs to two locations separated by 1203 kilometers on Earth, through two satellite-to-ground downlinks with a summed length varying from 1600 to 2400 kilometers. We observed a survival of two-photon ent
  
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• Response to Comment on "Xist recruits the X chromosome to the nuclear lamina to enable chromosome-wide silencing"

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Wang et al. question whether Lamin B receptor is required for Xist-mediated silencing because they claim that our cells contain an inversion rather than a deletion. We present evidence that these cells contain a proper deletion and that the confusion is caused by DNA probes used in the experiment. Accordingly, the points raised have no effect on the conclusions in our paper.
  
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• Resistance to malaria through structural variation of red blood cell invasion receptors

  15-06-2017 19:29
  The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum invades human red blood cells by a series of interactions between host and parasite surface proteins. By analyzing genome sequence data from human populations, including 1269 individuals from sub-Saharan Africa, we identify a diverse array of large copy-number variants affecting the host invasion receptor genes GYPA and GYPB. We find that a nearby association with severe malaria is explained by a complex structural rearrangement involving the loss of GY
  
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• Recurring and triggered slow-slip events near the trench at the Nankai Trough subduction megathrust

  15-06-2017 19:29
  The discovery of slow earthquakes has revolutionized the field of earthquake seismology. Defining the locations of these events and the conditions that favor their occurrence provides important insights into the slip behavior of tectonic faults. We report on a family of recurring slow-slip events (SSEs) on the plate interface immediately seaward of repeated historical moment magnitude (Mw) 8 earthquake rupture areas offshore of Japan. The SSEs continue for days to several weeks, include both spo
  
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• Rapid cooling and cold storage in a silicic magma reservoir recorded in individual crystals

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Silicic volcanic eruptions pose considerable hazards, yet the processes leading to these eruptions remain poorly known. A missing link is knowledge of the thermal history of magma feeding such eruptions, which largely controls crystallinity and therefore eruptability. We have determined the thermal history of individual zircon crystals from an eruption of the Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand. Results show that although zircons resided in the magmatic system for 103 to 105 years, they experienced
  
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• Plants transfer lipids to sustain colonization by mutualistic mycorrhizal and parasitic fungi

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi facilitate plant uptake of mineral nutrients and draw organic nutrients from the plant. Organic nutrients are thought to be supplied primarily in the form of sugars. Here we show that the AM fungus Rhizophagus irregularis is a fatty acid auxotroph and that fatty acids synthesized in the host plants are transferred to the fungus to sustain mycorrhizal colonization. The transfer is dependent on RAM2 (REQUIRED FOR ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZATION 2) and the ATP binding ca
  
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• miR-183 cluster scales mechanical pain sensitivity by regulating basal and neuropathic pain genes

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Nociception is protective and prevents tissue damage but can also facilitate chronic pain. Whether a general principle governs these two types of pain is unknown. Here, we show that both basal mechanical and neuropathic pain are controlled by the microRNA-183 (miR-183) cluster in mice. This single cluster controls more than 80% of neuropathic pain–regulated genes and scales basal mechanical sensitivity and mechanical allodynia by regulating auxiliary voltage-gated calcium channel subunits
  
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• Maximizing the right stuff: The trade-off between membrane permeability and selectivity

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Increasing demands for energy-efficient separations in applications ranging from water purification to petroleum refining, chemicals production, and carbon capture have stimulated a vigorous search for novel, high-performance separation membranes. Synthetic membranes suffer a ubiquitous, pernicious trade-off: highly permeable membranes lack selectivity and vice versa. However, materials with both high permeability and high selectivity are beginning to emerge. For example, design features from bi
  
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• Kilogram-scale prexasertib monolactate monohydrate synthesis under continuous-flow CGMP conditions

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Advances in drug potency and tailored therapeutics are promoting pharmaceutical manufacturing to transition from a traditional batch paradigm to more flexible continuous processing. Here we report the development of a multistep continuous-flow CGMP (current good manufacturing practices) process that produced 24 kilograms of prexasertib monolactate monohydrate suitable for use in human clinical trials. Eight continuous unit operations were conducted to produce the target at roughly 3 kilograms pe
  
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• Increase in predator-prey size ratios throughout the Phanerozoic history of marine ecosystems

  15-06-2017 19:29
  The escalation hypothesis posits that predation by increasingly powerful and metabolically active carnivores has been a major driver of metazoan evolution. We test a key tenet of this hypothesis by analyzing predatory drill holes in fossil marine shells, which provide a ~500-million-year record of individual predator-prey interactions. We show that drill-hole size is a robust predictor of body size among modern drilling predators and that drill-hole size (and thus inferred predator size and powe
  
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• Fatty acids in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are synthesized by the host plant

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Plants form beneficial associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, which facilitate nutrient acquisition from the soil. In return, the fungi receive organic carbon from the plants. The transcription factor RAM1 (REQUIRED FOR ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZATION 1) is crucial for this symbiosis, and we demonstrate that it is required and sufficient for the induction of a lipid biosynthetic pathway that is expressed in plant cells accommodating fungal arbuscules. Lipids are transferred from the plant to
  
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• Early life stress confers lifelong stress susceptibility in mice via ventral tegmental area OTX2

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Early life stress increases risk for depression. Here we establish a "two-hit" stress model in mice wherein stress at a specific postnatal period increases susceptibility to adult social defeat stress and causes long-lasting transcriptional alterations that prime the ventral tegmental area (VTA)—a brain reward region—to be in a depression-like state. We identify a role for the developmental transcription factor orthodenticle homeobox 2 (Otx2) as an upstream mediator of these enduring
  
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• Dual-comb spectroscopy of water vapor with a free-running semiconductor disk laser

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Dual-comb spectroscopy offers the potential for high accuracy combined with fast data acquisition. Applications are often limited, however, by the complexity of optical comb systems. Here we present dual-comb spectroscopy of water vapor using a substantially simplified single-laser system. Very good spectroscopy measurements with fast sampling rates are achieved with a free-running dual-comb mode-locked semiconductor disk laser. The absolute stability of the optical comb modes is characterized b
  
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• Controlling guest conformation for efficient purification of butadiene

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Conventional adsorbents preferentially adsorb the small, high-polarity, and unsaturated 1,3-butadiene molecule over the other C4 hydrocarbons from which it must be separated. We show from single-crystal x-ray diffraction and computational simulation that a hydrophilic metal-organic framework, [Zn2(btm)2], where H2btm is bis(5-methyl-1H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)methane, has quasi-discrete pores that can induce conformational changes in the flexible guest molecules, weakening 1,3-butadiene adsorption th
  
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• Comment on "Xist recruits the X chromosome to the nuclear lamina to enable chromosome-wide silencing"

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Chen et al. (Reports, 28 October 2016, p. 468) proposed that an interaction between Xist RNA and Lamin B receptor (LBR) is necessary and sufficient for Xist spreading during X-chromosome inactivation. We reanalyzed their data and found that reported genotypes of mutants are not supported by the sequencing data. These inconsistencies preclude assessment of the role of LBR in Xist spreading.
  
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• Coherent imaging of an attosecond electron wave packet

  15-06-2017 19:29
  Electrons detached from atoms or molecules by photoionization carry information about the quantum state from which they originate, as well as the continuum states into which they are released. Generally, the photoelectron momentum distribution is composed of a coherent sum of angular momentum components, each with an amplitude and phase. Here we show, by using photoionization of neon, that a train of attosecond pulses synchronized with an infrared laser field can be used to disentangle these ang
  
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• Targeting immune cells that help tumors stay hidden could improve immunotherapy

  15-06-2017 18:06
  
  Researchers have discovered a clue that could unlock the potential of immunotherapy drugs to successfully treat more cancers. The findings were made in mice and showed that targeting a sub-population of immune cells called regulatory T cells (T-regs) could make the drugs more effective.
  
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• Smart materials used in ultrasound behave similar to water

  15-06-2017 18:06
  Researchers have provided new insight into piezoelectrics materials, a smart material used in ultrasound technology. While forming the most thorough model to date of how these materials work, they found striking similarities with the behavior of water. A more complete understanding of why these materials behave the way they do can unlock new materials design, leading to higher quality piezoelectrics that may revolutionize smart material applications.
  
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• Raucous crystals: Acoustic emissions from organic martensite analogues

  15-06-2017 18:06
  Some organic crystals jump around when heated up. This happens because of an extremely fast change in their crystal structure. Scientists have now demonstrated that the crystals send out acoustic signals during this process, which may be useful in analyzing the characteristics of this phenomenon. The researchers demonstrated that this process is analogous to martensitic transitions observed in steel and some alloys.
  
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• How to educate future therapists more effectively

  15-06-2017 18:06
  In the classroom, what's the line between education and personal experience? In the course of a North American and UK study, a researcher found that the conflicting demands of education and therapy within the classroom can cause emotional stress and confusion among students in drama therapy and other professions using dramatic enactment.
  
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• How does a frog heal wounded skin without scarring?

  15-06-2017 18:06
  When a Xenopus frog is deeply wounded, its skin can regenerate without scarring. Researchers have found that cells under the skin contribute to this regeneration after an excision injury.
  
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• High prevalence of CRE in Washington, D.C. healthcare facilities

  15-06-2017 18:06
  Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), a family of highly pathogenic antibiotic-resistant organisms, are endemic across Washington, D.C. healthcare facilities, with 5.2 percent of inpatients testing positive for the bacteria, according to new research.
  
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